Probably next to coffee, the cash crop you would see in abundance in Coorg is pepper. In fact pepper is mostly goown as an inter crop with coffee, meaning you’ll see a lo of pepper cultivation along with the coffee in the same plantation.

While coffee is a bushy plant, pepper is a vine that needs a support tree. That said pepper is not grown on the coffee plants. Rather coffee needs a good deal of shade trees (about 30%) in a plantation for its efficient growth and yield. Pepper vines are grown on these shade trees that dots the plantation. The pepper vine branches horizontally around the support plant and make the pepper vine appear like a bushy plant.

The Pepper leaves are heart-shaped. The tender ones appear bright green while the matures leaves are a of a lot darker shade of green. What is harvested of pepper plant is its fruits, called peppercorn.

The peppercorn shoots look as tightly knitted beads, a few inches long hanging from the stem of the pepper vine. The ripe pepper berries in this shoot turn bright red. However harvesting is done much before the fruit turn red.

Once the peppercorn in the form of shoots are cut from the vine, its is dried and cured.

In Coorg you can see this done on (bamboo) wicks mats. In fact dried pepper is one of the souvenirs people buy on their return from Coorg, especially those stay in the plantation stays or home stays in Coorg.

So that’s a quick overview of pepper in Coorg. To top it up here are some trivia. Pepper is native of India. During ‘those days’ of spice trading a kg of pepper costed more than a kg of gold. Even today pepper is the largest traded spice in the world. No wonder pepper earned the nick name ‘The King of Spices’ and ‘Black Gold’.

---

Itinerary for Coorg

The itinerary for your Coorg tour depends on at least three things : how long is your stay, where do you stay and your interests.
...MORE➺

Coorg Homestay

Coorg is the homestay capital of this part of the country. In fact the second best highlight of a Coorg tour, after Nature, is its much talked about home says.
Why Coorg homestays are so popular ? And what to expect ?...MORE➺

How to explore Coorg?

Coorg is relatively large district (and not single destination) with its attractions scattered all around. For example north to south of Coorg, the distance is well over 100 km. ...MORE➺

Bangalore to Coorg

Bangalore to Coorg distance of about 260 km by road, that's if your destination in Coorg is the Madikeri town....MORE➺

Pepper corn

Well, this is not about coffee making. Rather how coffee produced as a crop product. Many of you heading to Coorg as a tourist probably is going to see for the first time how the coffee is grown. If you think the coffee plantations are going to be filled with... MORE ➜

In Coorg every Hindu religious rituals revolves around Igguthappa. He is considered as the presiding deity of the region. In local parlance Igguthappa means the giver (of grains); the rain god; the one who grants everything. Symbolically Igguthappa is portrayed as serpent with open hood. Mythologically Igguthappa is considered as... MORE ➜

This mountainous district in Karnataka lies about 100km west of Mysore city. The west of Coorg is Western Ghats, along which Coorg shares boarder with the neighboring state Kerala. Dakshina Kannada district shares boarder with Coorg's northwest. Hassan to the north, Mysore to the east, Kannur to the southwest and... MORE ➜

There are two reasons for the comparison. The first is historical while the other is geographical. The historical reasons seems far more significant than the geographical. Most of the early planters ( of Coffee ) in Coorg during the colonial era were Scots. So it is they who first called... more ➜

And finally when you make it to Coorg, you find everything changed in one stroke. The air is cold and misty. The smell is predominantly of coffee, but still with a hint of dried ginger, cardamom and orange in that order. Coorg sits trapped but comfortably inside an almost closed... more ➜

Mangalore to Kukke Subrahmaniya road distance is about 100+ km. There are a few routes to reach Kukke from Mangalore side by road. On NH48 take the right diversion at Mani to the Madikeri Road (SH88). About 11km after Puttur you'll reach Kumbra. Leave the highway and take the left... more ➜

First of of all, there is no railway station in Coorg. The nearest practical railway station is Mysore Junction (Station code: MYS). So, essentially you'll be traveling from Chennai to Mysore by train and from Mysore to Coorg by road. The Chennai to Coorg route is like this: Chennai ->... more ➜